Christmas Miracle
by Clara Barton
Summary: Duo learns to appreciate the holidays. Written as a gift for Hasu for the GWFanwork Exchange on Tumblr.


This was for the GW FanWork Exchange on Tumblr created by the amazing Miss Murdered.

For Hasu: anything 1x2x1/1+2+1, or 6x13x6/6+13+6, or any of those characters on their own, whatever. :') Where it is applicable— domestic situations are a huge plus, as well as fluff. Any rating.

**Christmas Miracle**

The first time it happened, Duo wrote it off, thought it was probably some well-meaning and terribly misguided attempt by one of the cleaning staff to spread holiday joy.

Who else would go into his office in the dead of night and leave a chain of paper snowflakes over his desk?

But the second time it happened, the very next day, as Duo took the chain down he noticed that the center snowflake had writing on it, scrawled around the intricate shape.

_You have a perfect smile_.

He dropped the chain on his desk and pulled open his lower desk drawer and grabbed the chain from yesterday and searched for it and -

_Your kindness is overwhelming._

What the hell?

At lunch he sat at his usual table and tried to casually ask Wufei and Trowa if they had noticed any… decorations around their offices.

They had both given him confused and slightly condescending looks and said no.

By the tenth time Duo was convinced that it wasn't anyone on the cleaning staff - he'd taken a case of beer downstairs to Art and gently interrogated him about his staff and no, none of them were closet admirers of Duo _or_ the holiday season.

So who was it?

He started watching the overnight surveillance feeds as soon as he got in in the mornings, scanning the vids as he carefully folded and stored the newest snowflake chain.

But they were clean.

So either an invisible ghost was leaving them for Duo - one who admired his sense of humor, his strength and his determination - or someone with the means and ability to scrub the surveillance vids was doing it.

He should probably ask Heero.

Heero had designed the Preventers security system himself and -

Duo had a brief moment, a heartbeat away from reality when he allowed himself to think that it was Heero leaving him the snowflakes and the compliments. He allowed himself to imagine that Heero actually did see him as more than a friend, as more than a colleague and a once a month drinking buddy and his workout partner. He allowed himself to wonder what it would be like to have Heero admit it, to blush and tell Duo he loved him and -

Duo stopped himself. That got out of hand way too quickly.

Heero didn't love him. Heero wasn't leaving him snowflakes and compliments. Heero Yuy did not engage in romantic frivolity. And besides, if Heero had even a glimmer of interest in Duo then he would have said something.

And also - if Duo went to Heero about this, Heero might actually laugh at him, might make a joke about Duo finally finding someone interested in him or arch an eyebrow in that damned annoying gesture he had picked up from Trowa and ask if Duo was actually admitting he needed help from the great and powerful Heero Yuy.

So no. He couldn't go to Heero.

Trowa might be able to help - but he was Heero's best friend and there was a damn good chance that he might spill this all to Heero if he was amused or bored enough.

So he was on his own.

He patched in a remote feed to his home computer and stayed up to watch the surveillance footage.

But whoever was doing this was good - they weren't scrubbing the vids after, they were looping them before hand, and it took Duo three nights to catch it - to see the moment when the replacement loop began.

The next night he timed it and walked into his office at the same time when the loop usually started - and the chain was already up, already in place.

The perp had already been there.

Two days later, Duo slept in his office, spent the whole night camping out on the cramped loveseat and thinking he really, really wasn't fifteen anymore and when did he get so old?

Somehow he managed to fall asleep, but he woke up when his door opened and he jumped up - well, he fell off the couch and quickly jumped to his feet and had his service firearm drawn and aimed at -

"Heero?"

The blue eyed man regarded him with an arched eyebrow, his gaze focused on the weapon Duo had aimed at him.

Feeling like an idiot, Duo holstered the gun.

But then he thought about it - then he realized. Heero. Heero was breaking into his office and -

"I'm looking for the Barowski report," Heero said in a flat voice. The tone of impatience.

"Oh. Right."

Duo searched for the report on his desk and then shoved the file into Heero's hands.

Heero flipped it open, looked over it as though checking to make sure Duo had done his homework, and then snapped it shut.

He gave Duo one last look, one judgemental shift of his eyes towards the loveseat and the rumpled mess of Duo's jacket that had served as a pillow and then he was gone.

It was only after Heero left that Duo saw it.

The snowflake chain over his desk.

_You are beautiful when you sleep._

Okay. That was a little creepy. But also -

How the hell had Duo slept through it? Was he really that pathetic? That he didn't even notice a B&amp;E happening under his very nose?

There were only three days until Christmas and everyone else around the Preventers headquarters seemed to be slowly giving in to the holiday season. Even Wufei had switched to a coffee mug decorated with candy canes and scowled at Duo when he stared at it in horror.

Trowa had somehow been roped into putting up decorations for the party tomorrow night and Duo watched him as he sipped his morning coffee and tried not to think about the intense pain in his lower back.

"You look disgusted."

Duo turned to see Zechs approaching, his typical smug, self-satisfied smirk in place, as though the world was a joke and he was the only one smart enough to get it.

Duo arched an eyebrow. He wasn't as good at it as Trowa or Heero.

Zechs gestured.

"You don't like Christmas?"

Duo shrugged.

"What's to like? All this crap," Duo gestures at the holly sprigs that Trowa was securing around the corners of the conference room he was decorating, "just useless memorabilia from a long ago time and a worthless religion."

"Indeed." Zechs still looked amused. "I used to feel the same way."

Duo just barely resisted rolling his eyes. If this was going to turn into another 'back in my day' story he -

"When I was younger," Zechs began.

Shit. It was.

"I felt the same way. I didn't have any family to celebrate with and besides - what was there to celebrate? I didn't believe in any of that nonsense about angels and babies." He shrugged eloquently. Duo had always envied Zechs' shrug, it looked so effortless and smooth and if didn't dislike the blond man so much he would probably compliment him on the gesture. He wondered if Zechs had practiced to perfect it, or if he was just born with the ability?

"Yeah, well -"

"When I was enlisted," Zechs spoke over him, undeterred by Duo's glare, "Christmas was meaningless because we were on duty in case. Well, most of us. The Specials used to run a lottery for a three day leave - only dozen men could win it. I lost it every year except for one. I don't think I've ever looked forward to a leave as much as I looked forward to that one. We were stationed on some backwards colony in the L2 sector and I'd already found a ride to one of those luxury colonies in L4 - you know the ones? Build with different themes?"

"Oh yeah, used to vacation there all the time," Duo snarked.

Zechs gave a long suffering sigh.

"It was the French themed one. I had a suite booked at a hotel and I was going to spend hours in the shower and it was going to be absolute perfection."

Zechs trailed off and Duo waited for him to continue.

When he didn't, Duo rolled his eyes.

"Fine. What happened?"

"Orders came down two days before my leave. I had to return to Brussels and give a report to some bloated committee about the Specials." Zechs shook his head. "I had a moment of actually thinking about not going, of deliberately disobeying."

"But you didn't."

"No, of course not. I went. And when I landed in Brussels do you know who was waiting for me at the airstrip?"

"No clue."

"Treize." Zechs smiled slightly. "He'd organized the whole thing - there was no committee report I needed to give. He just didn't want me to spend Christmas alone again. We spent the whole week -"

Duo held up a hand. He really didn't want to keep going down memory lane with Zechs, especially not when he was sure Zechs was about to start waxing poetic about Treize.

"That's special. Really great and moving and I'm glad you… you know had your own little Christmas Miracle or whatever. But I should get to work."

And Duo made his escape.

He knew it was rude, but Zechs was used to his rudeness by now. And besides, it was hard to listen to Zechs reminiscence about a man who had tried to rebuild humanity in his image.

Still, once Duo was back in his office he had a hard time focusing on the paperwork he desperately needed to catch up on.

He was an excellent field agent, but he hated this part of his job - briefings and debriefings and intel updates and all of the things that _weren't_ him actively taking down bad guys.

Duo found himself procrastinating under the best of circumstances, but under these circumstances - with the mystery of his stalker to solve - Duo felt little motivation to go through the reports on his desk.

He pulled out the twenty-two snowflake chains and looked over them again.

They were all different, all meticulously detailed, and the notes written on the center snowflake of each were - except for the latest - really nice and occasionally very incisive.

Duo almost wondered if Quatre was behind the whole thing. It seemed like exactly the kind of meddling approach Quatre would take if he was concerned about Duo. Then again, Duo hadn't spoken to Quatre in months - not since he had dropped in on him at the Winner Inc. offices and kidnapped Quatre for a day. That had been fun.

Duo hoped Quatre took time away from the company to enjoy his life, hoped he was surrounded by his sisters and their kids and able to appreciate his family.

Duo ran his fingers over the dark blue ink on the snowflakes and he wondered -

He started to sort through the files, looking for notes made by his colleagues, looking for that same color ink.

_Une?_

No. There was absolutely no way in hell that Une -

But the ink matched. Hell, even the handwriting look similar and Une had access to the surveillance vids, she -

No. It simply wasn't possible.

Duo tried to think back over their recent encounters. Hell, any of their encounters. Une didn't like him - she barely tolerated him and had threatened to fire him or bring him up on charges of insubordination more than a few times and sure, he deserved those threats but Duo seriously doubted Une was secretly in love with him.

_Please_, he prayed to a god he had never believed in, _please don't let Une be in love with me._

-o-

Someone had spiked the eggnog, and while Duo admired the initiative, he resented the fact that he hadn't been able to spike it himself. He'd been looking forward to sitting back and watching his drunken colleagues make fools of themselves. Last year, Wufei had even danced after enough drinks.

Of course, someone getting to the eggnog first wasn't the only surprise of the night.

Trowa Barton was dressed as an elf, from his belled slippers to his stockinged legs and fur trimmed tunic and hat.

Duo couldn't help but stare because -

Because why the hell was Trowa Barton dressed as an _elf_? It was like the premise of a ridiculous undercover mission. Except it wasn't.

And even though Trowa made it work, somehow managed to look almost sexy, the ever so slight downward tilt to his lips as he accepted compliments on his attire made it clear to Duo that he was not happy to be in costume.

So Duo waited until he could get Trowa alone and pushed him into a corner and demanded to know why he was dressed like an idiot.

Trowa arched an eyebrow and looked over Duo's attire and Duo could practically _hear _Trowa deciding not to ask him the same question.

"I lost a bet," Trowa said after a moment and after taking a long sip of the spiked eggnog.

Duo frowned.

"You? Lost a bet."

"Yes. I did."

"But you don't make bets unless you're sure you can win - hell, you cheat to win bets." Duo absolutely wasn't still bitter about the bet he had made with Trowa two years ago.

Trowa's lips twitched upwards slightly as he likely recalled the same incident.

"I did think I was sure I could win. It appears I underestimated the sheer stupidity of some people."

Trowa looked right at him as he said it and Duo frowned.

"Me? What did I have to do with this?"

Trowa sighed and rolled his eyes.

"Are you _really _that dense? After a solid month you _still_ haven't figured out -"

"Whoa. Whoa, whoa, whoa." Duo held up his hands. "Is this about the snowflakes?"

Trowa's eyes narrowed in irritation.

Well shit.

Trowa? Trowa had been leaving them?

Trowa was silent, stealthy - hell, he could have snuck into Duo's office while he was asleep and hung the chain two nights ago but - but really?

Trowa?

Duo fingered the latest snowflake chain in his pocket. When he'd taken it down that morning he hadn't wanted to put it into the drawer with the others. Not after reading the message on the center snowflake.

_I love you_.

"Look, Tro. I…" Duo was flattered, really, but Trowa? "I think you're great. Really do. And you're handsome and - hell, you're probably the only person who can look sexy in an elf costume but I'm not… you're just not -"

"I am not attracted to you, Duo," Trowa interrupted, his voice flat.

"Oh. Um. Well thanks for that gentle let down."

Trowa rolled his eyes.

"Would you rather I do it clumsily like you?"

Duo glared.

"I was trying to be nice!"

Trowa shook his head and made a disbelieving sound.

"So if it wasn't you then who - wait. You made a bet. About me."

"Yes. Now I can see why Une wants to move you to the intel side of operations."

"She does?" Duo was momentarily distracted. "Huh. I… kind of like being out in the field."

He shook his head. "But that's not - what kind of bet did you make?"

Trowa rolled his eyes and finished off his eggnog. He made a face.

"Let's just say that I told someone to get off his ass and follow his emotions because I thought you felt the same way. Either I was wrong, or you are an idiot."

"Can we just stop with the calling me an idiot thing? I don't even know who you're talking about. Who -"

Follow his emotions.

"Heero?"

Trowa held his gaze.

"Wait. No. Heero's been leaving the snowflakes? Heero Yuy?"

"Do you know any other Heeros?"

Duo had to stare.

He'd hoped. He'd dreamed. He'd thought it was impossible.

He also couldn't help but notice that Heero was not present.

"Where is he?"

Trowa shrugged one shoulder.

"No idea. He didn't want to come to this in the first place. I can't imagine you've inspired him to feel much of the holiday spirit."

Duo sighed.

"I didn't know! How the hell was I supposed to know Heero was - was being all weird and romantic?"

"Because he's been in love with you for years?" Trowa hazarded in a bored voice.

"Well, well. Aren't you looking festive."

Duo turned to see Zechs approaching, his ice blue eyes fixed on Trowa.

Trowa arched one eyebrow but his lips curved upwards in a smirk.

Duo took that as his sign to leave - he absolutely did not like the way those two were looking at each other and -

And he needed to find Heero.

He had a pretty good idea of where he could find him. There was only one place that Heero liked to go at Preventers headquarters when he was in a shitty mood.

Duo stopped by his office and grabbed his jacket but, following an impulse, he stopped and scribbled a note on a piece of paper and took that as well.

The roof appeared empty, a light blanket of snow crunching under Duo's feet as he walked around and he sighed. He had been so sure Heero would be up here. But then again, it was cold and -

And there he was, leaning against the side of a utility shed, hands shoved into his pockets and head bowed down.

Duo took the note he had written and folded it into a paper airplane. He took a moment, took careful aim, and let it loose.

It hit Heero on the cheek.

Heero turned instantly, gun drawn and eyes narrowed.

Duo held up his hands and offered a smile.

Heero looked down at where the plane had fallen into the snow. He holstered his weapon and bent down to pick it up.

Duo watched him unfold it, watched Heero read over the words and then look up at him, a question in his dark blue eyes.

Duo approached slowly, his hands still up.

"I ah, not the best with subtlety. Don't get me wrong - I appreciate the effort, the gesture or whatever, but… you know me, 'Ro. You know the only mystery I'm good at solving is whether or not the coffee is fresh."

Heero's lips twitched.

"You only solve that mystery by tasting the coffee."

Duo nodded.

"It's dangerous work, I know. But I like to think that I suffer so that no one else has to."

Heero glanced down at the paper in his hands, and then back at Duo again.

"I do," Duo said. "I love you too, Heero."

"You never said anything."

Duo rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, well neither did you - you're the most important person in the world to me, Heero. You're… hell, you're the closest thing to family I have and I didn't want to fuck with that. I… it was enough, just getting to see you every day."

"It's not enough for me," Heero shook his head.

Duo smirked.

"Well, that's because you're greedy."

Heero smiled slightly.

Duo reached out and tugged on the front of Heero's jacket, pulling him close.

"I should probably thank God for this Christmas Miracle," Duo muttered.

Heero arched an eyebrow.

"What?"

"I prayed yesterday. I… begged for it not to be Une."

Heero stared at him in horror and then burst out laughing.

Duo listened to the rich sound and he found himself smiling at it, at Heero's face and then he leaned in and kissed him.

Heero's lips were cold and firm and his hands, as he wrapped them around Duo's waist and pulled him close, were strong and calloused and perfect.


End file.
